Motor driven brush

ABSTRACT

A portable, hand-held, power-driven rotary brush having at least one rotary brush mounted thereon which is driven by an electrical motor coupled to the brush by a pulley-belt, or gearing system. The motor housing and the rotary brushes are detachable from a mounting member which supports the gearing and pulley system.

1e States Patent 11 1 1111 3,799, Sylvie Feb. 112, 1974 1 MOTOR DRIVEN BRUSH 2,812,529 11/1957 Payne 15/23 3,368,231 2/1968 Kr ta] l5/23 X [75] Inventor gy v East Elmhurst, 3,368,635 2/1968 Ha r srfrr 15/23 l u FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [73] Asslgnee: Arthur 671,351 9/1929 France 15/49 0 [22] Filed; June 22, 1972 745,764 2/1933 France 15/23 514,444 12/1930 Germany 15/49 C pp 265,109 300,256 4/1929 Great Britain 15149 c Related US. Application Data P Ex Ed d L R b n rlmary ammerwar o e s [62] jgzx g 192/25 1971 Attorney, Agent, or FirmAIlison C. Collard 52 US. c1. 15/23 [57] ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl A46b 13/02 A portable, hand-held, power-driven rotary brush ha [58] Field of Sear h 15/23, 24, 49 C 50 C 93 ing at least one rotary brush mounted thereon which is l5/383, 392; 51/170 PT driven by an electrical motor coupled to the brush by a pulley-belt, or gearing system. The motor housing [56] References Cit d and the rotary brushes are detachable from a mount- UNITED STATES PATENTS ing member which supports the gearing and pulley sys- 1,882,47l 10/1932 Beach 15/49 C tem' 2,461,369 2/1949 Cameron 15/49 C 1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures Patented Feb. 12, 1974 MOTOR DRIVEN BRUSH This application is a division of my copending patent application, Ser. No. 192,125, filed Oct. 26, 1971, and now abandoned, entitled Motor Driven Brush or Brushes.

The present invention. relates to power-driven brushes,v and in particular to a portable, power-driven hand-held shoeshine brush having at least one rotary brush mounted thereon for shining shoes and the like.

The polishing of shoes and boots, and other similar objects, by hand is a tedious and tiring process, and it is desirable to provide some quick and efficient means for polishing boots and shoes to provide a bright shine. Accordingly, the present invention ,provides a powerdriven rotary brush for polishing and shining shoes or boots in an efficient, easy manner. The device consists of an electric motor mounted on a rigid mounting member, and having its output shaft coupled to at least one rotating brush. The housing for the electricmotor serves as a hand grip for the polishing machine, and the motor housing and rotatable brush are detachable from the mounting member. The electric motor has a pulley secured to its output shaft, which is coupled to the rotary brush by a belt disposed on another pulley at tached to the brush shaft. The brush may also have a drive gear attached to the output shaft of the motor, which is coupled by means of a plurality of idler gears to adrive gear affixed to the shaft of the brush. The brush has annular-shaped bearings affixed to both ends of its shaft which are disposed in U-shaped clips affixed to the mounting member for detachably mounting the brush on the machine.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a power-driven polishing brush which requires a minimum manual effort to be expended during the polishing operation.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a power-driven polishing brush having detachable brushes mounted thereon which are readily interchangable as desired by the user of the device.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a power-driven polishing brush which is particularly useful for the polishing of shoes or boots, and which is simple in design, easy to manufacture, and efficient and reliable in operation.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which disclose several embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed for the purpose of illustration only, and are not intended as a definition of the limits and scope of the invention.

Referring to the drawings, wherein similar reference numerals denote similar elements throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a power-driven polishing brush constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial, cross-sectional side view of the brush, taken along section 2-2 of .FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a side view of another embodiment of a power-driven polishingbrush constructed in accordance with the present invention, showing the gearing system used to couple the power motor to the rotatable brush.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a housing 10 in which an electric motor is disposed. The motor transmits its power by means of output shaft 11, which has a pulley 12 affixed to the end thereof by means of a set screw 13 disposed in a threaded aperture 14 provided in the pulley. A U-shaped mounting member or bar 15 is attached to the motor housing 10 by means of set screws 16, and has U-shaped flexible metallic clips 17 attached at each end by rivets 18 for securing a rotatable brush thereon. The brush comprises a cylindrical shaft 19 to which bristles 20 are affixed in linear rows. Annular ball bearings 21 are affixed to each end of brush shaft 19, and are secured to mounting member 15 by flexible clips 17. A pulley 22 is affixed to the shaft between bristles 20 and one of the ball bearings on one side of the brush, and is coupled to pulley 12 and the motor output shaft by pulley belt 23. The pulley belt may be constructed of any suitable material, such as rubber, and is preferably elastic. As shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 2, the entire brush assembly, consisting of shaft 19, bristles 20, ball bearings 21 and pulley 22 are detachable from mounting member 15 by manually pulling the assembly from clips 17. A different brush, for use with a different color of shoe polish, for example, may then be inserted into the clips and the pulley belt attached to resume operation.

In FIG. 3 another embodiment of the invention similar to the brush shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is illustrated. Motor output shaft 11 has a driving gear 24 affixed to its end. Gear 24 meshes with idler gear 25, which engages idler gear 26 to drive a brush gear 27 affixed to the end of brush shaft 19. Gears 25 and 26 are rotatably mounted on mounting member 28 at points 29 and Y30. As shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 3, bearings 21 are removable from clip 17 so that the entire brush may be removed from the device and interchanged with another.

In the previously described embodiments, the materials used to construct the brushes, gears, mounting member, etc., may be any suitable construction materials. For example, the gears used to drive the brushes may be metal or plastic. The bristles of the brushes may also be plastic, or they may be made of some conventional brush fiber.

It should be noted that the plurality of gears used to drive the multiple brushes are of a minimum size in order to prevent them from projecting past the mount ing plates and damaging the object being polished or interfering with the brushing action of the brushes. It is for this reason that larger gears are preferably not used, and the disclosed arrangement is one of the novel aspects of the invention. Furthermore, other means may be utilized to secure the motor housing to the mounting member than that illustrated. For example, the fastening means disclosed in my above-identified application may be utilized so that the motor housing is easily de tachable from the mounting member.

While only several embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those persons skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made thereunto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

said U-shaped bracket;

a first drive gear affixed to the end of said motor output shaft, said gear being substantially smaller than said motor housing;

a second gear affixed to the end of said brush shaft external of said bracket and lying in the same plane as said first drive gear, said second drive gear being substantially smaller than the outside diameter of said brush; and

at least one idler gear pivotably mounted on said bracket for engaging said first and second gears for rotatably driving the brush in response to the rotational movement of said motor output shaft. 

1. A portable hand-held power-driven rotary brush for polishing objects such as shoes comprising: a motor housing; an electric motor disposed within said housing and having an output shaft; a U-shaped bracket secured to said motor housing and having a pair of extending parallel, spaced-apart legs; an elongated interchangeable rotary brush mounted on a shaft and having radially disposed bristles for polishing, said brush including a bearing on each end Of the shaft; a U-shaped flexible metallic clip secured to the end of each bracket leg for receiving and demountably securing said brush between the extending legs of said U-shaped bracket; a first drive gear affixed to the end of said motor output shaft, said gear being substantially smaller than said motor housing; a second gear affixed to the end of said brush shaft external of said bracket and lying in the same plane as said first drive gear, said second drive gear being substantially smaller than the outside diameter of said brush; and at least one idler gear pivotably mounted on said bracket for engaging said first and second gears for rotatably driving the brush in response to the rotational movement of said motor output shaft. 